Rose & Ruby Productions, also known as Rose and Ruby Pictures, was a Canadian sports promotion and film production company founded in 1977. It was one of the country's notable producers of televised sports programming before establishing itself as a purveyor of genre movies in the 1980s and early 1990s. For much of its history, the company was anchored by directors Damian Lee and David Mitchell.
History Rose & Ruby Productions' originally specialized in the organization of competitions for "everyman" athletes, which it placed on television for the benefit of a corporate sponsor, a concept that Lee had popularized in the Canadian market shortly before the creation of Rose & Ruby itself. Many of these programs were seen on the Canadian version of Wide World of Sports broadcast on the CTV network. The company later graduated to sports featuring professional or established amateur athletes, often for CTV as well. In 1977, Rose & Ruby tried to set up a professional tennis tournament for the following March at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens to replace the dormant Rothmans International, but the event did not proceed. In 1983, the company also applied to the CRTC for a license to operate a pay sports television channel.
While it did not get its own channel, the emergence of premium cable outlets looking to satisfy Canadian content obligations, such as First Choice, opened the door to branch out into fiction content. Rose & Ruby also took advantage of the tax shelter opportunities that were synonymous with Canadian film financing at the time although, according to Lee, the boom of international pre-sales during the second half of the 1980s allowed the company to distance itself from that sometimes stigmatized model. Bodybuilder Franco Columbu, who contributed to several of Rose & Ruby's mid- to late 1980s features, was a partner in the company and was listed as its American representative at the time. In later years, Rose & Ruby also named veteran cameraman and director of photography Curtis Petersen as its Vice President of Production.
In 1993, Rose & Ruby entered a multi-picture financing partnership with Menahem Golan's 21st Century Films, which was struggling to find banking support. It included National Lampoon's Last Resort (21st Century was initially mentioned as co-producer but later only as international distributor), Death Wish V: The Face of Death and the less commercial Crime and Punishment. However, Lee was not credited in the final version of Crime and Punishment, and although he remained on board as producer of the other films, the Rose & Ruby label was phased out from them as well. After that batch of Golan collaborations, Lee focused his efforts on another outfit headquartered on the same premises, called Richmond House, to whom former Rose & Ruby associate David Mitchell briefly collaborated early on.
Filmography Sports (select list) Year Title Broadcaster/Distributor 1978–1984 The Great Canadian Challenge/The Gillette Challenge Fitness CTV 1978–1982 Datsun Special Gymkhana CTV 1979 GMC Jimmy Showdown Gymkhana CTV1979Canadian Frisbee Championships Frisbee CTV 1981 Cointreau Cup Racquet sports CTV 1981–8? Yesterday in the CFL Gridiron football CTV 1982 Hitachi Mile Running CTV 1982 Avon Women's Marathon Running CTV 1983 National Fitness Test Fitness CTV (unconfirmed)1985WPSA Hardball SquashCTVRose & Ruby Prods (video)
Fiction Year Title Domestic distributor Notes 1983 Copper Mountain: A Club Med Experience First Choice (TV premiere) 1984 Reno & the Doc First Choice (TV premiere)Pan-Canadian Film Distributors (theatrical) With American Cinema Marketing 1986Screwball AcademyAmerican Cinema MarketingPan-Canadian Film Distributors Also known as Loose EndsWith Shapiro Entertainment (Non-North American distribution) 1986 Busted UpPan-Canadian Film Distributors With Shapiro Entertainment 1987 Circle ManCineplex Odeon Films Also known as Last Man StandingWith Shapiro Entertainment City of ShadowsCineplex Odeon Films With Shapiro Entertainment 1988 The Miles AheadFirst Choice (TV premiere)Cineplex Odeon Films (home video) Also known as Hot SneakersWith American Cinema Marketing WatchersAlliance Releasing With Concorde Pictures and Carolco Pictures 1989 Food of the Gods IIAlliance Releasing Also known as Gnaw: Food of the Gods IIWith Concorde Pictures and Carolco Pictures ThundergroundCineplex Odeon Films With Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment 1991 Abraxas, Guardian of the UniverseCineplex Odeon Films With Phoenix Entertainment Group Ski SchoolFamous Players(Cineplex Odeon Films in some sources) With Moviestore Entertainment (USA Distribution)Deadly DescentFirst Choice (TV Premiere) 1992 Baby on BoardCinépix/Famous Players DistributionWith Sandy Howard Productions, ABC, and World Entertainment Network 1994 National Lampoon's Last ResortC/FP Video (video premiere)UncreditedWith Amritraj Entertainment1994Death Wish V: The Face of DeathCinépix/Famous Players DistributionUncredited With 21st Century Film Corporation
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